2. Unesco can (apparently) admit whomever it likes; however it seems this was also a case of political posturing, seeing as how Unesco's interests are not really served by having a large part of its (US-supplied) budget cut. Maybe Unesco should not be bullied into not letting the Palestinians in, then again, is Palestinian membership really that vital to Unesco's operations?

I'll bet the recent spate of terrorist attacks against Israel (What? You didn't know about them? I guess you must have been reading all the mainstream news organizations) also played into the decision but using settlement expansion as a political weapon is counterproductive and I really wish they'd stop it.